Rockland property tax rate rises more than 3 percent

ROCKLAND, Maine — Most city property owners will see their taxes have risen by more than 3 percent when the bills arrive in the mail in a week.

The city assessor set the tax rate Friday at $19.42 per $1,000 of assessed property. This is up 3.4 percent from the previous rate of $18.78.

People with homes assessed at $150,000, for example, will see their tax bills rise $96, from $2,817 to $2,913.

City Assessor Dennis Reed said tax bills will be mailed next Friday.

The first half payment is due Sept. 28 and the second half is due March 8. The city charges 7 percent interest for late payments.

Fifty percent of the $15.1 million in property taxes to be raised in Rockland will go to Regional School Unit 13. Payments to Knox County account for a little more than 5 percent of property taxes raised with the remainder used by the city for municipal services.

The overall jump in taxes was due to both increases in the city budget and Rockland’s share of the school district budget.

The combined values of properties in Rockland rose 1 percent since last year, reaching $780 million. Reed said a 1 percent increase has been the norm for the past few years.

The city’s largest taxpayer is FMC Corporation, which has a manufacturing plant on Lime Street that produces carrageenan, used in food processing. FMC’s total taxable valuation this year is $22.4 million which means it will be paying $435,000.

Other top taxpayers include Fisher Engineering which produces snow plows and related equipment, Wal-Mart, the Harbor Plaza Shopping Center, the Rockland Plaza Shopping Center, the O’Hara companies and Liberty hotels that include the Trade Winds Motor Inn and the Navigator Motor Inn.